Walkable Art: An Empirical Investigation of Arts-Related Businesses and Walkable Neighborhoods

Abstract

The goal of this study is to quantitatively examine the relationship between walkability and arts-related businesses in metropolitan areas across the United States. Model results indicate that the relationship between arts businesses and walkability is sensitive to the size or scale of the business considered, as well as to the definition of the arts used. Larger-scale businesses are somewhat more likely to locate in walkable neighborhoods than are small-scale arts-related businesses, which are less likely to locate in walkable neighborhoods. This difference is likely due to the higher cost of property in these neighborhoods. In this regard, community-level economic development and planning entities need to take proactive measures to ameliorate the cost externalities associated with modifications to urban environments to make them more walkable.

The Quest for Creative Industries: A Multilevel National Study of the Impacts of Urban Form on the Geography of Creative Industries

“…Equally important, another novel finding suggests that in two neighborhoods with the same KIBS LQ (i.e., the same concentration of knowledge-intensive business services), the one located in the MSA with the greater compactness score is associated with a higher Creative Score. Although existing literature has focused on the location of art and culture in the United States ( 22 , 25 , 47 , 58 ) and creative firms in Europe and the United Kingdom ( 31 , 59 , 77 ), these findings contribute to the literature, suggesting that a compact urban form could potentially be a favorable determinant of the geography of creative industries captured by the Creative Score. This is in large part because the compact neighborhoods provide creative industries with a stronger consumer base as a reliable source of profit ( 22 ); but also a compact urban form attracts a greater majority of educated millennials, offering them a higher quality of life ( 7 , 8 ), and serves agglomeration economies by facilitating knowledge exchange, reducing travel time and cost, and giving greater accessibility to destinations through transit ( 29 , 30 ).…”

“…Empirical studies have also confirmed the importance of neighborhood outdoor amenities, walkability, and public transit as centripetal forces that attract the creative class and industries (23,(43)(44)(45)(46)(47). For example, McGranahan and Wojan found that the amenity-rich areas in urban (metropolitan) counties in the United States were significantly and positively related to the share of the creative class between 1990 and 2000 (48).…”

“…In one study, Kang discovered that improvements in bus rapid transit have attracted and retained the creative industries in Seoul ( 44 ). In relation to walkability, Mack et al revealed that large-scale arts industries are likely to choose walkable neighborhoods, whereas small-scale arts firms do not exhibit the same tendency ( 47 ).…”

Achieving lively, creative and successful university environments

“…He found an in-migration of the creative class, but no significant difference between CCDs subject to design efforts and those not. Mack et al (2017) report that large (but not small) scale arts businesses are more likely to locate in walkable neighbourhoods. Grodach et al (2014), who base their study on data from almost 14,000 U.S. metropolitan zip code areas, found some signs of attraction of art industries to density and older housing, but conclude that it 'locally requires different attributes' (p 2838).…”